


Stubborn

by fangirlfatale (awrinkle)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, Leela the Asshole Cat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-28
Updated: 2014-07-28
Packaged: 2018-02-10 20:01:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2038173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awrinkle/pseuds/fangirlfatale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek doesn't have anything against cats in general. It's just that Braeden's cat is Satan incarnate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stubborn

**Author's Note:**

> Written from a [prompt ](http://www.fangirlfatale.tumblr.com/post/93093608836/when-braden-grows-up-and-has-a-kid-or-a-cat-or-whatever/)by [moonpiezz ](moonpiezz.tumblr.com)on Tumblr.
> 
> “Never try to outstubborn a cat.”
> 
> ― Robert A. Heinlein

 Derek will openly declare how much hates the cat. It sheds everywhere, steps on his sandwiches, and sneezes on his morning coffee. It sleeps on his side of the bed, his space on the couch, and right in front of the bathroom door. He steps on her every goddamn time he gets up in the middle of the night to go piss. Nothing wakes a guy up faster than an inhuman screech and claws gouging into his calves.

But Leela’s Braeden’s, and he thus can’t say jack about it.

 

Derek maintains that Leela is entirely Scott’s fault. Braeden had visited the vet for information on the best way to kill a manticore (and wasn’t that a fun week) and come back with the ugliest cat he’d ever seen. It’ was huge and gray and ugly, fur patchy and wiry, face smushed in like a six year old’s best drawing.

“Deaton wasn’t in,” Braeden says, putting down the cat and letting it stare around the room, “But Scott was about to put her down to make room for incoming cats because spring’s coming. Apparently she’s been at the vet for years after someone left her there and went on vacation.” Braeden gazes sadly after the cat, who’s sniffing suspiciously at the potted bamboo plant Kira got Derek last Christmas.

“So you adopted it?” he says in disbelief.

Braeden gives him a severe look, and Derek squirms uncomfortably. Braeden may have ditched most of her guns, but he knows for a fact that she’s still got a thing for knives and could still very easily kick his ass. The fact that he’s still healing from the manticore’s sting means she got an extra one up on him.

“ _Her._  And  _her_ name is Leela.” Braeden eyes the mug in Derek’s hand. “Tea?”

“Chamomile.” Derek replies resignedly. He sighs and hands it over when she raises a perfectly arched eyebrow and looks meaningfully at the mug.

She snags it and takes a delicate sip before reaching into the cupboard for sugar and the peppermint tea bags Derek hates. He’s got nothing against peppermint in general, but once Braeden found out peppermint leaves sped healing, he was forced to drink the tea every time he got hurt, no matter how small the life-threatening wound.

“A guy almost dies  _one time_ ,” he grouses.

She flicks him on the nose and starts reciting, “Berserkers, the Calaveras, the kelpie from Lake Forest,  _Peter_ —”

“Alright, alright.”

He drinks the tea and mumbles to himself, frowning at the way Braeden deserts him to dangle a cheap mouse toy in front of the cat. He shoots Scott a text  _srsly you had to tell her abt the cat_ and gets a simple  _leela needed a good home and brae’s cool_  seconds later.

He gets  _plus stiles named her and I couldn’t just put her down!!!_  soon after and resolves to punch both of them the next time they meet up.

 

That night, Derek rolls over to cuddle up to Braeden and gets clawed for his trouble, the cat decidedly unhappy that she’s being squashed.

_“Derek.”_

“I didn’t do it on purpose!” he hisses, watching the scratch marks heal, “Why is it even on the bed?”

Braeden glares at him and scoops the cat into her arms, cooing to it while she gives Derek the evil eye.

Derek sleeps on the couch. His arm stings like a bitch.

 

Leela and Derek have a standoff a week later as the cat sits right next to Derek’s plate, paw hovering over his bacon.

“So help me god,” he says meanly, “you touch my bacon and I’ll make it look like you ran away.”

Leela pokes his bacon. Just pokes it. Doesn’t even try to eat it. She just stares him in the eye and slowly puts her paw down on his plate.

Braeden comes home before he can toss her out a window.

 

Two weeks pass, and the full moon arrives on the shittiest day of the fall season. It’s been wet and muggy all day, and Derek almost doesn’t want to run in the woods. But it’s the full, and the full means  _pack,_ and he won’t miss that for anything.

They tumble into the loft around 2am with four boxes of pizzas and a bag of pita chips and guacamole that Braeden and Lydia hoard for themselves while everyone else fights over who gets a slice of what topping. Leela makes an appearance soon after, annoyed at having her twelfth nap of the day disturbed by a bunch of rowdy, wolfed out teenagers.

“Awww!” Kira says and drops onto the floor to make the cat’s acquaintance. Leela sits there primly, tail lashing behind he like she’s actually something to look at while Kira coos at her. Stiles and Malia join in, the former telling her about the character she’s named after while Malia scratches her head in a way that makes her purr loudly like a lawnmower.

“I should get a dog.” Derek sulks, and Scott bumps his shoulder and says, “Jealous much?” before flopping onto his stomach and making faces at the cat. True Alpha, ladies and gents.

 

They’re getting hot and heavy a couple days later, Braeden backed up against the kitchen counter and bracketed in by Derek’s arms when Leela makes a weird hacking sound.

“Wha—mm, Derek wait. What’s that?” Braeden pulls away.

“No no no ‘s just the cat. C’mere.” Derek leans back in for another kiss ad Braeden puts her hand over his mouth, twisting around so that she can search out the sound of the cat’s weird hacking cough. “Probably just a hairball.” He says, muffled. He kisses her palm and pulls it away so he can get his mouth on her neck.

“You’re probably right.”

They’re just getting back into it, Braeden boosted on the countertop and Derek between her legs when the damn cat  _vomits_  all over the rug Derek  _just bought_.

“Oh my god!” Derek curses the evolutionary line felines sprung from as Braeden twists away to go pick up the cat, who’s still making weird wheezing noises. “I’ll take her to the vet. Take care of this for me?” She jerks her head to the steaming pile of vomit on his rug and pecks a kiss on his cheek before grabbing the cat carrier and her keys, and then leaving.

He stares down at the rug and wonders if he should just burn it.

 

Deaton says Leela’s eaten a toxic plant, but he needs time to identify which one. Braeden just gets rid of all of them, even the one he got from Kira.

Leela splays out in the patch of sunlight where his bamboo plant used to be and stares at Derek, lazily flicking her tail back and forth, like she’s  _waiting_ for something.

 

Braeden walks in one day while they’re glaring at each other and watches them watch each other for a moment, before she grabs Derek’s chin.

“I’m not getting rid of her.” She says simply. He frowns and tries to pull away but Braeden just holds him tighter. “I’m not getting rid of you either.” Derek stills and looks at her in surprise, “Yeah I noticed, dumbass. Jealous of a cat, who’d have thought.”

Derek turns red, jerks away, “I’m not jealous.”

“Yes you are.” Braeden grabs his arm and reels him in. She kissed his cheek and the curve of his lip until he turns to face her. “Leela’s staying for one more week before she goes back to her owners.”

“What?” His hearts thumping with cautious hope.

“I lied, before,” Braeden sucks on his earlobe, bites down delicately to feel him shudder, “Leela’s owners actually are on vacation, but she was too much of a bitch to the other cats to stay at the vet. So I took her home. Figured it’d be a good a time as any to test you.”

“Test me,” he says dizzy with relief that the cats leaving and the arousal kicking through his veins at the way Braeden’s hands are wandering. “Test me for what?”

“I want a baby, Derek.”

Holy—

Holy  _shit_.

“Holy shit.”

“Mmhm. Wanted to see if you could handle sharing space with a small creature.”

Derek groans and smacks a hand over his eye. “I failed so hard, didn’t I?”

“No, actually.”

“No?” He peeks at her through his fingers.

“Nope,” she says, popping the ‘p’ sound, “I got the most infuriating cat in all of Beacon Hills, and not once did you retaliate. Even when it puked on the rug.”

“Oh,” he drops his hand to her face and smoothes his thumb over her cheek, “Do you really…?” he asks breathlessly. “Because I want…I’d really—”

She nods and kisses him hard, grinning. “I do.”

His heart feels two sizes too big for his chest and he squeezes Braeden tight against him. Derek heaves her onto the countertop and Braeden laughs. “Wanna get started now?”

The cat tries to swipe at Derek’s leg and he gently sweeps her aside with his foot. Offended, Leela slinks off to the sink in the bathroom when Derek and Braeden get too loud to tolerate.

 

Derek sees Leela in the Sanderson’s window while he and Braeden are walking down Main Street, and he happily flips her off behind Braeden’s back. The cat bristles and disappears behind the curtains.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr at [fangirfatale](http://www.fangirlfatale.tumblr.com/).


End file.
